Giving Up
by russetfurbr
Summary: Loosened based on 2x03 promo. What Cat does when Vincent shows up with flowers after hitting her. ONE SHOT.


**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction made for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way.**

**Giving Up**

Vincent shifted his weight from foot to foot, nervously fixing the flawless bouquet on his hands and hearing the steady beat of the heart he could distinguish from others even at a crowded night club. Her approaching steps were slow and kind of hesitant. Catherine was tired and he knew it.

It was irrational and he wasn't supposed to do that, but he went to check on her every single day since their last faithful encounter, a week ago. He hadn't mustered the courage to face her, just observed her through her apartment's windows from the next building.

He felt dirty for doing that. Spying on people from afar was what he did to take down his targets, hence him not liking to do it to watch her. It had advantages, of course. In what other way he would find out that she hadn't slept more than three hours for day? Or that, only once, she broke down and cried herself to sleep?

She was a tough girl. She wouldn't admit that kind of weakness to anyone. She didn't even tell her partner. She was also proud. She hadn't made any effort to find him since that day, even though her shoulders weren't as erect as they used to be before his criminal behavior.

He was already anticipating the look of surprise on her face when seeing him at her apartment's door. As well as the increase of her heartbeat. He wasn't prepared for the rapid hardening of her features, though.

"Hi," he greeted, sheepishly.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked, coldly.

No greetings, no smile. That would be hard.

"I... I just wanted to see how you were doing," he replied, feeling like an idiot for sounding so insecure.

"I'm fine. Thanks for your concern," was the impersonal answer.

She wouldn't play easy, would she?

"Here!" he said, giving her the flowers.

She didn't take it, only looked at it with an unreadable expression. Something in the back of his mind clicked, telling him that her attitude wasn't as mysterious as it seemed. For a second, he thought that he had already seen that expression before.

"They really took all your memories away, didn't they? Otherwise, you would know that you don't give flowers for one night standers. In fact, the whole point of it is not seeing the person anymore," she stated in a hard tone.

He flinched at her words. Man, he was an idiot! He knew that he hurt her pretty bad. And that she didn't have any injuries from his violent shove.

"Catherine, I'm sorry. I really regret saying that to you. It wasn't fair. And I can't even describe how much I hate myself for hurting you," he pleaded.

"Don't worry about that. I'm tougher than what I look like."

"You're not making this easy."

For some reason, she thought that was amusing because she laughed a little. It was bitter, but it was a laugh.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just that you hadn't changed so much, after all," she said, shrugging.

"Can you please stop with all the coldness and cryptic comments? I came here to apologize, to make emends."

"And why would you want that? I thought it was established that you don't know and don't care for who I am."

He didn't have an answer to that. He didn't know why he was there, why he wanted her forgiveness or why he recoiled when she said he didn't care. The only think he knew was that he couldn't stop thinking about her hating him and how much that bothered him.

"It's not like that," he tried to argue.

"Did you kill Zhao?" she asked, suddenly.

"What? What his death has to do with us?" he asked back, completely lost.

"There's no "us". You made that pretty clear. Did you kill him?" she pressed.

He shut his expression down, hiding his emotions and motivations again. That was a topic that he would never discuss with her. Or anyone else, for that matter. That was classified information. And his missions were his current only purpose in life.

That was one of the reasons that got him so confused about her. She wasn't part of his missions – except when she interfered on them, of course – and he had no memories of her. He simply didn't understand why he couldn't stay away from her.

She sighed tiredly, seeing his reaction. She got the message.

"Well, you should know that my precinct is on it. Unlike your owner, I don't want to see you dead and I know that you'll be an easy target on jail. Therefore, I'll just go after you when I find out without a doubt that it was you."

His jaw clenched when she referred to his bosses. He hated that she talked about him as if he was a dog. He had a feeling she was quite aware of that.

"You know you can't overcome me. You said it yourself," he stated, assuming his _cold soldier_ expression.

"I never said that I would do it alone _and_ I have a tranq gun."

He couldn't be sure if she was bluffing or not. Her heartbeat went sky high when she saw him and had yet to go back to normal. Something about her saying that she would help to arrest him took him out of his coldness, though. He felt betrayed. He felt hurt.

"What happened with "I'm just trying to help" or "I'm so relieved I found you"?" he asked, aggressively.

Her attitude confused him. He didn't know how to deal with her when she was acting like that. Hell, he didn't know how to deal with her. Period. He wanted to talk with the sweet woman that looked at him with eyes full of love, though. Yes, he was very wrong when he put his hands on her, but he regretted it deeply and was trying to apologize. It was really hard to do it when she didn't want to hear it.

"You clearly don't need my help and _I am_ glad I found you. You were taken against your will. I didn't know what happened to you, if you were okay or not. I know now that you're alright and that you're with them on your free-will. Believe it or not, finding you was the best thing that happened to me in the last three months. I realized that you finally got what you wanted, though."

"And what is that?"

"To be free, to get rid of me. You always tried to push me away and now you don't need it anymore because you don't know who I am. At a point in our relationship, I got the clear impression that you were with me because I was the only woman available. You don't need to hide anymore. Therefore, you can go out and meet new people. You don't need to settle for me. You don't need to remember me."

It made sense in a way. Even with his blank memories, he understood her reasoning and her insecurity. She said that he was in hiding and that no one, other than her and JT, knew about him. A person didn't need to be very bright to know where she was coming from.

"I want to remember, though," he said, almost inaudibly.

His words had an immediate effect on her. Her expression softened visibly and, for a second, confusion and hope shone on her beautiful green eyes. She looked at him for a time so long that a silly thought of her becoming a statue crossed his mind.

"Vincent, I'm tired," she declared, at last. "Can we do this another time?"

He nodded, knowing that it was useless to force his presence on her much longer. He gave her the flowers, saying that he bought them for her and it would be pitiful to trash them. She considered his words and took the flowers with a torn expression. She was accepting his peace offer, but with reservations. In a fluid motion, she turned her back on him to enter her apartment.

"Catherine," he called out.

She turned to him. Only her head. A clear sign that she didn't have any intention to open herself up to him. Not in that moment.

"I know you don't believe me, but I really am sorry," he whispered in a sad, regretful tone.

"It's good that you know," she responded.

She entered her apartment without looking back. Vincent stared at her closed door for countless minutes with a bitter taste in his mouth.

He didn't know that woman and he didn't own her anything. Yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that he just lost something very precious in his life.

**The End.**

_**A/N: Just needed to vent out. I know the show won't go anywhere this, but I needed to have a stronger Cat. **_

_**I'm still uninspired and worried about the new redhead. And, by the looks of the show right now, I have all to reasons to be. I really don't know if I'll have stomach to see Vincent flirting with another woman or whatever they have in mind.**_

_**Anyone else worried sick with the bad ratings?**_


End file.
